Apple iOS 4.1 Will Fix Proximity Sensor Issues, Game Center and More

You’ve all been waiting for it, and soon Apple iOS 4.1 will arrive and fix all of your iPhone woes — except you iPhone 4 users who can’t seem to get around the antenna issue. In the last update, the hope was that the pesky proximity sensor issue would be fixed, but that won’t come until 4.1 arrives. For now, you’ll have to live with accidentally hanging up on people or dialing random users with your cheeks or while fumbling for your phone in your pocket.

Also coming to iOS 4.1 are Game Center features as reported by AppleInsider:

As noted earlier this week, the latest beta also added a Game Center restriction. The feature allows the owner of an iPhone, such as a corporation or parent, to restrict access to certain functions of the device.

Other changes listed:

Users will have the ability to turn on or off a “Check Spelling” feature in the Keyboard section of the iPhone’s Settings application. Users can have misspelled or unrecognized words highlighted without enabling the Auto-Correction functionality.

As previously reported, the latest beta of iOS 4.1 allows users to conduct FaceTime video chat via another person’s e-mail address. This is likely how the forthcoming iPod touch refresh, widely expected to have a forward-facing camera, will allow users without a phone to engage in a FaceTime call.

Camera controls now reposition between portrait and landscape orientations. Currently in iOS 4, the flash and camera selection buttons will only rotate accordingly when the camera is physically turned. Now, the buttons transition to remain atop the screen, regardless of orientation.

Developers have access to new functions to identify the BSSID or SSID of the current Wi-Fi hotspot that the user is connected to.

iOS 4.1 carries a new modem firmware of 2.10.01.

Developers now have new methods to save images to a user’s photo album.

iOS 4.1 also includes new capabilities that allow applications to control fonts.

With the e-mail option for FaceTime coming in the new software, does this mean that new hardware (iPod touch and iPad with cameras, please!) is just around the corner, too?

Other features and fixes seem to be rather minor, but overall this is quite an improvement to iOS 4.